Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Colorado-Avalanche

My money has been on Clark as the Av most likely to be traded, but now I’m starting to wonder about Liles. Yeah, he’s making a big ticket, for this year and the next three. But teams are going to like his “promise” tag, and he’s having a pretty good year so far. Don’t forget, the Avs have a few kids in their system who they feel will be just as good as Liles - or better. At the top of that list is Boston University sophomore Kevin Shattenkirk.

The Avs need some forward help, and one of their several marketable defensemen should bring in something decent in that area.

All three Moore brothers, Mark, Steve and Dominic, have Harvard diplomas. It doesn’t take one of those to figure out that the NHL would frown on the Avalanche making a public display of support for Steve, who, after all, is suing a one-time fellow NHL player and an NHL team, the Canucks, and who tried to include other individuals (i.e., Brad May, Brian Burke, Marc Crawford) in an original suit that was tossed out in Denver. But I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The Avalanche should tell the NHL to mind its own business and plan to honor Steve at a home game in March.

It’s probably poor taste to bring this up, but it wouldn’t be a bad public relations move for a franchise that increasingly needs it and has taken deserved criticism for turning its back on a former player in a sport that takes pride in its one-for-all ethic in the dressing room and on the ice. I’d say do it at the March 4 game against Detroit, because that probably would be a sellout, anyway, and thus the team couldn’t be accused of making the move only to sell tickets. The problem there is that many Red Wings fans would be among the crowd and wearing red that night, so I do think the Avalanche could justify holding the Moore night at another game.

And, make no mistake, our fair-haired boys were the victims of a horrible call tonight by Don “Have another donut, you fat pig” Koharski. Ryan Smyth gets pushed into the goalie - and barely touched the goalie anyway - and gets called for goalie interference, thereby nullifying Milan Hejduk’s third goal of the night and causing lots of fans to lose their hats for nothing.

It was a crazy call, no question about it. But let’s face it: our lads are a loser’s bunch right now, and one bad call should not be used as a mask for the dismal reality of this team.

The Avs are basically a two-thirds line team right now. Milan Hejduk and Smitty are the only ones consistently bringing it every night. The rest are trying, but…nothing’s happening.

The return of Lemieux to the NHL, at age 43, certainly has had the hockey world abuzz. Tonight at the Pepsi Center against the Avalanche, he will play his second game for the San Jose Sharks since being called up from the team’s minor-league affiliate in Worcester, Mass., last Monday.

There will be no need to check his water bottle for an elixir from the Fountain of Youth, Lemieux says. Hard work and dedication are responsible for a comeback nearly everybody scoffed at.

“I proved to myself that you never say never,” said Lemieux, who retired from the Dallas Stars in 2003. “For the last few years, I’d wake up every morning saying to myself, ‘I know I could do this. I quit too soon. But I can make it back if I put my mind to it.’ And once I finally decided to really put my mind to it, I had no doubts I’d make it.”...

His weight swelled to 250 pounds. His once-chiseled cheekbones disappeared under the soft flesh that comes from one-too-many slices of pizza.

“I definitely got fat,” Lemieux said with the characteristic bluntness that made him one of the NHL’s most colorful and controversial players.

I couldn’t help but shake my head in embarrassment for the Avalanche franchise afterward tonight, though, when it came to my attention that Kroenke Sports Enterprises sent out a Captain Queeg-style email to all hockey-side employees over a recent blog I wrote, about people at KSE being worried about their jobs in this horrible economy, and of expense-cutting initiatives such as eliminating company-paid Internet access hotel charges on the road, and things like that.

From what was described to me, the paranoid, threatening-sounding email promised recriminations toward anybody who might have leaked such information to yours truly….

Good grief, these guys just will never get it. They think you’re stupid, fans. They can’t handle the truth. When anything bad happens, this team just retreats like a turtle into its shell of denial and subterfuge and pretends everything is just peachy, when if only they would just act like adults and say, “Yeah, you know what, we are cutting back in this tough economy, and yeah, things aren’t helped that much with this mediocre product we’re putting out on the ice, but you know what? We’re striving to do better and we just hope our fans hang in there with us.”

Rayzor decides to take a wrist shot up the middle, which we all know is real easy with those big paddle-board sticks, with a catchers’ mitt on one hand and a body full of heavy equipment.

Pass gets knocked down by Horcorff, leading to a chinese fire drill in which Rayzor kicks back out the puck he appeared to have saved between his legs, only to flop around and watch Horcoff slide the puck in for the 3-2 game-winner.

Rayzor makes about 50 saves tonight, many of them great ones. Then loses a game because he decided to act like Moe, Larry or Curly, take your pick.

I must chime in on this quote by Peter Budaj that was in Terry’s story of our beloved and worthy Denver Post.

The quote was this: “I lost the net before and I knew it was going to happen this season, that there were going to be times Rayzor was going to be playing. That’s the nature of the business sometimes.”

Look, I know things get said sometimes that are taken out of context and sometimes guys who are from a different country say things that might not mean exactly - or that they think they mean.

But, geez, if I’m Tony Granato or Francois Giguere or Stan Kroenke and I’m reading that statement, I’m having a little sit down with Boods to ask him about it. So, basically, you knew you’d be no good eventually and lose your starting job, is that what you’re saying?

Q. What is it like to make a living in the front of the net in today’s NHL, and exactly how has it changed from the NHL of a few years ago?

Smyth- “Good question Joseph. I don’t want to say it’s not as physical, but it’s not as wrenching on your back as it used to be. You still compete for your territory, but you don’t take as many cross checks to the back as before.”

Reports out of Columbus have said Foote not only threatened to be a bad teammate and not have his heart in it if he stayed with the Blue Jackets, but he had a plane set up to take him to his reunion with the Avalanche, even before the deadline deal was consummated….

Those who made charges about Foote while insisting on anonymity are gutless. This isn’t “a State Department official,” with tacit approval from above, discussing Mideast policy with the media. Neither is this something as benign as “sources” disclosing that the Jackets are set to hire John Doe as an assistant coach; this is “sources” making reputation-damaging allegations.

Granted, hockey journalism often doesn’t set the bar high for “sourcing.” A “source” can be not just a league or team official, but also an assistant trainer’s brother-in-law’s barber . . . or a dart board. I’m not saying it’s that bad in the Foote imbroglio, but the use of unnamed sources, likely with axes grinding, for much of the material undercuts the credibility.